My top forty films

(This is no static or quantifiable science.  But the fact is that I feel very strongly at different times that a film is

my favourite film, or eighth favourite, or whatever.)

21. 

40.  MONTY PYTHON: THE HOLY GRAIL

39. THE RAINMAKER

Francis Ford Coppola shows what Hollywood could be if all the big budget big star films were made by people of his quality.  An inspirational, mainstream film about a young law student who brings down a big insurance firm.  Coppola knows how to tell the story better than the writer of the novel, John Grisham.

38.  THE TRUMAN SHOW

37.  TRAINSPOTTING

36.  PULP FICTION

35.  ERASERHEAD

34.  FARGO

33.  KISS OR KILL

32.  AMELIE

31.  DETROIT ROCK CITY -  a very silly film.

30.  BASEketball - a very, very silly film.

29.  CHEECH AND CHONG: UP IN SMOKE - a silly⁹ film

28.  ROMEO + JULIET

27.  BARTON FINK

26.  DOGS IN SPACE

 I didn't like it as I watched - but it kept resonating so long after.

25.  THE BOOK OF LIFE

A little known one hour film by Hal Hartley (Henry Fool) about the second coming of Christ, with PJ Harvey his girlfriend Mary Magdalene and my fave actor Thomas Jay Ryan the devil. 

24. STOLEN KISSES

 Alas one of only three foreign language film to make it to this list.  The funny and sad Francois Truffat film about errant lover Antoine, and his misplaced lusts.  Beautiful.

23.  DEAD POETS' SOCIETY

22.  CELEBRITY

 Under rated and unappreciated, this is a hilarious and beautiful comedy with rich, true characters.  The circularity of the story lends poignance, the Beethoven music, the moment captured in film.

21.  GANDHI -

 Perhaps naive, perhaps untrue to Gandhi's life, but inspirational nonetheless.

20. BEING JOHN MALKOVICH

 A brilliant film with witty dialogue, incisive plot and a lot of originality.  But I don't like any of the characters. 

19.  MAGNOLIA

The dialogue blows me away, as does Tom Cruise's performance as a self-help sex guru.

18.  MEMENTO

17.  QUILLS

 A sordid, breathtaking meditation on art, sexuality and censorship. 

16.  HE DIED WITH A FELAFEL IN HIS HAND

 Director Lowstein understands (rock) music and its potentially deep influence.  I love the rainy wedding scene with The Stranglers' 'Golden Brown' playing and the bath attempted suicide scene with a killer live version of Nick Cave's 'The Mercy Seat'.

15.  Y MAMA TAMBIEN

14.  DONNIE DARKO

13.  THE RULES OF ATTRACTION

12.  24 HOUR PARTY PEOPLE

The story of Tony Wilson, a key figure in the Manchester music scene.   Love the music, the script and the visuals.  

11.  DECONSTRUCTING HARRY

A Woody Allen film about a neurotic writer whose ex-wife's sister wants to kill him because of what he wrote in his novel.  It's hilarious and it's smart and it's true. 

10.  STORYTELLING

Solonz (sp) has this uneasy edge between comedy and horror and drama and this is an incredible film that retains these things as well as being a meditation on literary theory, on writing and truthtelling - or that's how I read it. 

9.  LOST HIGHWAY

A dark poem that lodged in my brain like razor wire. 

8.  VIRGIN SUICIDES

An intensely beautiful and dark study of 1970s suburbia, adolescence and feminine beauty.  It haunts me. 

7.   ANNIE HALL

A witty, sweet comedy that will always endure.  If you've ever known an Annie the memory of this film will bring a smile to your face too. 

6.  ADAPTATION

I've only just seen this film, but it was like Woody Allen's greatest, yet with an untouched dimension of beauty and surprise.  I identify strongly with Kaufman.  It made me realise that even when I make it, I'll think I haven't.  I'll still sit in the corner.  

5.  THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE

The whole of the world is contained within this film, full of intelligence, and long oaked subtlety and mastery. 

4.  HENRY FOOL

Henry Fool is an inspiring flawed prophet who I'd almost like to be.  The dialogue in this film is amazing.  I saw it in Bunbury's Entertainment Centre by myself, in a summer of great transition, and then again the next summer on video.  A brilliant study of what it is to be a poet. 

3.   AMERICAN BEAUTY

The film responsible for me switching from law to theology, because it showed me that the line everyone's peddling us is largely a crock of shit.   Live now.  Not when you retire.  Not when you've paid off the house etc.

2.  FIGHT CLUB

An inspiring manifesto which calls us to blow up our Ikea condos and live truly.  It was shown on Channel 9 with ads, an irony Tyler would be smiling or breaking heads about. 

1.  THE BIG LEBOWSKI

The funniest film ever made.  And one that offers a profoundly comforting thought - 'The Dude Abides'.  The Dude and Walter are masterful characters.  The film is ever true to itself and ever witty, insightful, quirky.  This film reminds me that life can be fun. 

Past favourites:

mid-1998 - THE RAINMAKER - a surprisingly smart and manipulatively inspiring film about a law student taking on the system and winning one for the little guy, directed by Francis Ford Coppola.

1998 - KISS OR KILL - a fast, edgy thriller that had me smiling in excitement and bursting. 

1997 - ROMEO AND JULIET - I was 16; Claire Danes wore angel wings.

1993 - ALIENS - Big guns, scary aliens.

1980s - STAR WARS TRILOGY - But of course.